Plowboy
Plowboy - context Summary
Published in 1918
Written for Sandburg’s 1918 collection Cornhuskers, this short pastoral evokes a momentary rural scene: a plowboy and two horses turning the last furrow at dusk. The poem registers sensory details—the brown turf, soil smell, April haze—and frames the image as lasting memory. It reflects Sandburg’s sustained interest in Midwestern labor and the dignity of working lives, celebrating simple, enduring rural work through quiet, attentive observation.
Read Complete AnalysesAfter the last red sunset glimmer, Black on the line of a low hill rise, Formed into moving shadows, I saw A plowboy and two horses lined against the gray, Plowing in the dusk the last furrow. The turf had a gleam of brown, And smell of soil was in the air, And, cool and moist, a haze of April. I shall remember you long, Plowboy and horses against the sky in shadow. I shall remember you and the picture You made for me, Turning the turf in the dusk And haze of an April gloaming.
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